VietNamNet Bridge – This year’s International Travel Expo (ITE) HCMC will take place at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7 from September 12 to14, attracting some 300 foreign tour operators.

One of the highlights of this year’s exhibition is that Thailand for the first time will join Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to promote the tourism image “Five Nations-One Destination”.

Some 250 foreign tourism companies have registered for the event, which is projected to rise to more than 300, said Nguyen Bao Anh, deputy director of the HCMC Tourism Promotion Center. So far 300 companies have put their names down to join the expo, including tourism enterprises, hotels, air carriers and local and foreign tourism promotion agencies.

“This year we focus on drawing more customers from potential visitor-generating markets like the Middle East, the United States and Russia. Up to six international air carriers cooperate with us to take customers to the event,” Anh informed.

The ITE HCMC is organized by the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam National Trade Fair & Advertising Company (Vinaxed) and exhibition organizer Informa under the instruction of the tourism ministry and the city’s government.

The event incorporates an exhibition, meetings between tour sellers and buyers, seminars and conferences of tourism ministers of five countries in the Mekong Sub-region along with Vietnam-Russia tourism cooperation and development conference.

One of the highlights of this year’s exhibition is that Thailand for the first time will join Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to promote the tourism image “Five Nations-One Destination” instead of only four countries like before, Anh said.

With Thailand’s participation, tourism ministers of the five countries will sit back together to discuss policies to boost the joint tourism programs to woo international visitors and to develop tourism in the region.

Source: SGT